Green’s Dictionary of Slang

bed, in the context of a place for sex.

1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 78: Beddie Bed.
1975		‘P.B. Yuill’ Hazell and the Three-card Trick (1977) 186: On balance you’re worth more to me in readies than in beddies.

(US campus) an attractive, sexually available young woman.

1989

P. Munro Sl. U.

(orig. US) a promiscuous person.

[1637		R. Brome Eng. Moor III i: That I may [...] Triumph / Over the lustful stallions of our time: / Bed-bounders, and leap-Ladies].
1947		M. Spillane I, the Jury 120: Mary [...] looked me over from top to bottom. ‘You look like an athlete if I ever saw one.’ ‘What kind?’ I joked. ‘A bed athlete’.
1957		Northwest Rev. 1:1-2:4 16: He proves himself [...] a bedroom athlete equal to Kerouac’s young bohemians.
1967		W. Goldhurst Contours of Experience 184: Elmer Gantry [is the] bedroom athlete, the coldly seductive Don Juan who, by loving all women, rationalizes a murderous inability to love anyone.
1972		Publishers Weekly (US) 3 Apr. 20: Chester Himes, ex-convict, jewel thief, bedroom athlete [...] but above all writer.
1990		P. Davies All Played Out 265: he had, however, the biggest cock in the history of the human race, and when it came to being a bed athlete, was really quite prodigious.
1999		D.O. Dyer, Sr Option Seven 🌐 Look, Tony, I was a pretty good professional football player. I’m a good bed athlete too.
2002		Lois Roden’s Astrodatabank 🌐 The Sun/Pluto con. dictates a person (Sun) of power (Pluto) but also a person who has an obsessive desire for sex. I suspect that the Mars/Venus con. plus the Sun/Pluto con. would make him quite the bedroom athlete, as Pluto also is the ruler of sexuality.

(US) an underage sexual partner, who can be of either sex although most often a teenage girl.

1948

Partridge in Words at War, Words at Peace.

see separate entry.

a prostitute.

1838		W. Holloway Dict. of Provincialisms 10/1: Bed-Fagot, A contemptuous name for a bed fellow.
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict. 72: BED-FAGOT, a contemptuous term for a bedfellow.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. (2 edn) 1: Bed-Fagot - A contemptuous term for a woman, generally applied to a prostitute.
1896		Farmer Vocabula Amatoria (1966) 202: Paillasse, f. A harlot; ‘a bed-fagot’.

1. the vagina.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

2. the penis.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

to live a sexually promiscuous life; thus bedhopping n. and adj.

1956		Westerly 1:3-4 33: [B]ed-hopping. Boring boring boring.
1959		W. Wasserstrom Heiresas of All the Ages 102: [T]he turgid muscularity and female bed-hopping of the twenties and thirties.
1961		J. Wain Nuncle 169: [I was] in for a bit of rather tired bed-hopping. Largely to convince myself that I wasn't past it. What happened wasn’t always too convincing, but I put that down to the drink.
1969		Film Bulletin 38 12: [B]ed-hopping and wife-swapping.
1975		Alistair Cooke on PBS 21 Dec. [TV] In between the bed-hoppings [etc.].
1978		Time 5 June 61: Lesley Anne Down graduated to playing [...] a bed-hopping socialite.
1989		T. Blacker Fixx 51: Never [...] have I encountered bedhopping on the scale it took place at Melton Hall.
2001		posting at Keen Forums 4 Apr. 🌐 Don’t get drunk, don’t bedhop, just get Blotto. Seven days a week!

1. (US) a ‘short-time’ hotel or assignation house.

1842		Whip & Satirist of NY & Brooklyn (NY) 9 Apr. n.p.: There are so many bed-houses and places of assignation, where bawds pleasure crowns the labors of the day.
1850		N.E. Police Gaz. (Boston, MA) 10 Aug. n.p.: Margaret and her ‘cousin Peter’ were on their way to a bed house’ [and] the girl received a V for her trouble [...] Mag has slept with a male friend at an assignation house .
1856		G.G. Foster N.Y. by Gas-Light (1990) 195: The bloated night-walker [...] who lives by pacing the purlieus of the Points or Water street all night, and enticing drunken negroes, sailors or loafers into two-shilling bed-houses.
1872		J.D. McCabe Lights & Shadows 523: [T]here are [in New York] about 5000 women of ill-fame, known as such, living in 600 houses of prostitution, and frequenting assignation and bed-houses.
1936		Laws of Wisconsin (Statutes) §348.351: [A] house of prostitution, bed house, room, or any other place for any unlawful purpose.

2. (US black) a brothel.

1842		Whip & Satirist (NY) 23 July n.p.: Her den is a bed house, and is the resort of the most low and vulgar of those dangerous characters who nightly infest this neghborhood.
1871		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 24 June 3/4: He met a fascinating demoiselle [who] invited him to a bed-house kept by a woman named Annie Valentine.
1936		see sense 1.
1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.
1966		Trimble 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases.
1986–7		Maledicta IX 148: The compilers ought to have looked farther afield and found: […] barrel house, bawdy house, bed house, broad house.

1. a dull and heavy man; a lazy man.

c.1597		Shakespeare Henry IV Pt 1 II iv: [of Falstaff] This bed-presser [...] this huge hill of flesh.
1635		W. Scott Essay of Drapery 102: I never knew a perpetual bed-presser so much as mentioned.
1898		Manchester Times 11 Nov. 5/2: Your bear is a highly accomplished bed-presser.
1906		Manchester Courier 9 Oct. 8/5: Mr Tree was a perfect mountain of man, a huge bed-presser.

2. a whoremonger, a womanizer.

1933		(con. 1900s) C. McKay Banana Bottom 144: ‘Pudenda!’ he ejaculated [...] ‘Stop your Spanish obscenity, you licentious Panama bed-presser,’ said the minister.
1947		Partridge Shakespeare’s Bawdy 79: bed-presser. A fornicator; a whoremonger or womanizer.

3. a prostitute.

1909		Farmer & Henley Sl. & Its Analogues (rev’d edn) 173: bed-sister, bed-presser, bed-piece and bed-fagot: see tart.
1984		Partridge DSUE (8 edn).

(Aus.) very noisy breaking of wind.

c.1943

S .J. Baker Aus. Vulgarisms [t/s] 7: bedrocker: A loud fart.

see separate entry.

(US) a failure, an incompetent.

2002

C. Stella Jimmy Bench-Press 18: He’s a jerkoff [...] He’s a genuine bed-wetter.

see separate entry.

(W.I., Bdos) of a woman, to take part in a sexual relationship in return for material support.

1996

Allsopp Dict. Carib. Eng. Usage.

to have sexual intercourse.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.

(N.Z. prison) confined to one’s cell through sickness.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 15/1: on a bed ride to be confined to one's cell for medical reasons.

(US campus) to have sexual intercourse.

1998

Eble Campus Sl. Apr. 11: wreck a bed – engage in energetic sex.

(orig. US) allied or associated with, usu. implying nefarious activities.

1969		R. Starnes Flypaper War 79: ‘[A]ll the oil companies on earth are in bed with each other’.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 79: I knew Don Jorge was in bed with Amadeo.
1979		E. Torres After Hours 72: Do you think we would be in bed together if I didn’t have faith in you?
1983		A. Payne ‘Senior Citizen Caine’ in Minder [TV script] 31: Now that we’re in bed together -- [...] Business-wise, Johnny, business-wise.
1996		(con. 1933) G. Pelecanos Big Blowdown (1999) 21: All you Greeks are in bed with Roosevelt.
1998		(con. 1986) G. Pelecanos Sweet Forever 203: If Tutt’s in bed with Tyrell [...] then you know the two of them have go to hook up to talk about damage control.
2001		K. Waterhouse Soho 49: I’m half in bed with a guy in LA whose name I daren’t even breathe.
2007		(con. 1962) E. Bunker Stark 13: Because of a stupid bust [...] he was in bed with the cops.
2010		(con. 1973) C. Stella Johnny Porno 52: The ones in bed with the mob over stolen cars, and guys [...] running interference for the porn business.

1. (US) to trail a subject until they return home and stay there.

1904		N.Y. Times 31 Jan. 27/6–7: The first night he shook off our detectives after they had followed him less than a block, but the next evening we put a ‘tail’ on him, and thus contrived to ‘put him to bed,’ as we call it.
1933		Ersine Und. and Prison Sl.
1949		A. Hynd We Are the Public Enemies 154: Peggy Cavanagh, the Cleveland Waitress, was being awakened in the morning and put to bed at night, as they say in detective circles.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 169/2: Put the clown to bed. To follow a small town cop home before committing crime.
1968		W.R. Burnett Cool Man 97: He intended to wait Willie out, and, in the language of the police on tail, put Willie to bed.

2. to perform a task until it is concluded, esp. used of newspaper editions/columns.

1961		W.R. Burnett Conant 61: That night Mike put the column to bed at eleven o’clock.
1976		J.W. Dean III Blind Ambition 144: ‘I’m going to stay on until we put Watergate to bed’.

3. (US und.) to deal with, dispose of.

2024

C. Stella Joey Piss Pot 240: ‘That fugazy mustache will put that bullshit drug charge to bed. It was a setup’.

4. to consume a drink.

2009

T. Black Gutted 135: I put the double to bed smartish, let the pint go down slower.

dead and buried.

[1673		M. Stevenson Norfolk Drollery 85: For he is still, though he be dead, / But in a manner put to bed].
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1823		Egan Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1834		(con. early 19C) W.H. Ainsworth Rookwood 179: Long after I’m done for — put to bed with a mattock and tucked up with a spade.

to murder; to bury.

1707		J. Mapletoft Select Proverbs 110: The greatest King must at last go to Bed with a Shovel or Spade.
1727		J. Smythe Rival Modes 3: George: Dead! How? Hen. Of a several things. Of a Dropsy; of four Apothecaries - and of a Tuesday - Which being over, after I had put her to Bed with a Shovel [...] I felt within me that pleasing Satisfaction which all Husbands feel when their Wives can feel no more.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1803		Derby Mercury 11 Aug. 4/1: If this Corsican Chief, / should come o’er like a Thief [...] And his Army of Slaves, should by Chance ’scape the Waves, / Then we’ll put them to bed witha Spade.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum.
1824		Morn. Chron. (London) 7 Aug. 4/2: They had not lived on good terms lately; he often told her that he would stick her, and be the end of her, that he would put her to bed with a spade.
1829		Dublin Morn. Register 13 Aug. 4/3: D—n your old eye, if we thought you had known us last night we would have ‘put you to bed with a spade’.
1834		‘Jack Downing’ Andrew Jackson 150: An undeservin person who hadn’t put all ’em are Inglish tu bed with a shovel, when he had 'em in his power.
1840		R. Barham ‘The Babes in the Wood’ in Ingoldsby Legends (1842) 189: No sooner, however, were they / Put to bed with a spade by the sexton, / Than he carried the darlings away.
1854		Waterford Chron. 26 Aug. 1/5: How some of our ould friends [...] would stare at the notion o’ bein’ ‘put to bed with a spade’ [...] instead of havin’ a rowzin’ wake [etc.].
1859		‘Hundred Stretches Hence’ in Matsell Vocabulum 124: With shovels they were put to bed / A hundred stretches since!
1879		Wheeling Dly Intelligencer (VA) 9 June 3/3: Ttry your strong Government and a Dictator, of you dare. The former will be broken up [...] and the latter will be put to bed with a spade and pick.
c.1881		‘Hands off’ [broadside ballad] – Some fine day, when I’m laid in the clay. Put to bed with a spade in the usual way [F&H].
1881		Northern Trib. (Cheboygan, MI) 5 Nov. 3/1: When he is buried he is [...] ‘put to bed with a shovel’.
1885		‘Lela’ in Maitland Mercury (Aus./NSW) 31 Mar. 2: The arch gonnoff is dusty, you’d better wish. If he rats you are a prate roost, you’ll get put to bed with a shovel.
1892		Oakleigh Leader (Nth Brighton, Vic.) 3 Sept. 45/5: The last event which happens to all alike [...] is described as ‘wearing a wooden ovecoat’ and being ‘put to bed with a shovel’.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 62: Put to Bed with a Spade or Shovel, buried.
1904		Sun (NY) 10 July 29/4: Here is a genuine letter written in thieves’ slang, recently found by the English police [...] I met an old flame [...] that I thought was put to bed with a spade and shovel stretches ago.
1906		A.H. Lewis Confessions of a Detective 30: Your one chance to put them away, so they’ll stay, is to put them to bed with a shovel.
1916		Topeka State Jrnl 13 Sept. 9/4: The old bug was gone — had been taken to the hillside and ‘put to bed with a spade’.
1916		Eve. Star (Washington, DC) 13 Sept. 18/1: The bully they take to the dump on the hill, and put him to bed with a spade.
1936		L. Pound ‘Amer. Euphemisms for Dying’ in AS XI:3 198: Put to bed with a shovel.
2000		(con. 1940–60s) Décharné Straight from the Fridge Dad.